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3 Critical B2B Sales & Marketing Dangers to Avoid

3 Critical B2B Sales & Marketing Dangers to Avoid

There are some certain factors that need to be critically considered if b2b firms must be successful. For instance, a company, after spending millions of dollars to make sure b2b sales and marketing are aligned, they came to realize the key issues affecting this kind of business. They discovered that the b2b salespeople have goals that don’t align with the marketing team’s goals. And when this happens, it is quite difficult for both parties (sales & marketing teams) to strike a balance for the betterment of the organization.

This is the same problem that is faced by most companies out there. The marketing team and sales department in most cases set out goals and strategies that are misaligned with each other. From a research we carried out on B2B sales management, we discovered that the major problem encountered is lack of balance between the price of a product and a strategic compensation plan put together by the sales team. This in turn turns out to demotivate salespeople, and they end up looking for ways to meet their goals at the detriment of the company’s profit.

We took out time to conduct an experiment, thereafter we carried out a comprehensive interview with B2B salespeople. To ensure that our research was well grounded, we involved over a hundred and fifty B2B salespeople. Also, the salespeople came from a wide range of industries with an average sales experience of fifteen years. Thankfully, we were able to discover three common troubles of misaligned goals that affect the B2B sales management and marketing department.

Misaligned goals between the sales team and marketing team demotivate

This is the first danger we were able to deduce from out research. It is quite challenging and almost impossible for the sales force to pursue two goals that are not aligned. This can kill the “sales spirit” and make the team commit to just one of the goals, leaving the other to suffer. To achieve this finding, we created scenarios for pricing and compensation goals and allowed several salespersons to react to them. After everything, we discovered that there lies a big danger if the pricing and sales compensation plan are not well-aligned. All participant in the research knew that the price of a commodity increases for logical and legitimate reasons. However, the case was not the same with the sales folks because they were reluctant to accept the fact that changes in price was warranted. Thus, when there is misaligned goals, it affects the concept of the B2B sales management thereby causing pessimism.

Misaligned goals leads to avoidable difficulty

In B2B, we can avoid some unnecessary difficulties if we put things in the right order. One thing that the salespeople considered more challenging and difficult is misaligned goals. Of course, there are difficult goals, but they are not as problematic as misaligned goals. The B2b salespeople believe difficult goals are challenges to be solved, but misaligned goals are unnecessary feat that can be avoided. According to the description of the view of a salesperson on price as par the steps he followed, he said that he wasn’t going to market a product when he knew things weren’t right. He continued by saying that he can’t be compelled to talk about a product that is too expensive.

Another salesman talked about how he pulled out of deals even when he knew they have a goal to meet. He continued by saying misalignment has caused his team to lose many sales opportunities.

Achieving a misaligned goal comes at a cost to the b2b salespeople

To be able to achieve a misaligned goal between price and sales force compensation, the B2b salespeople may have to do more by offering further resources such as free freight, customized products, and free training. When asked if these additional services conceal the true profit of a commodity, one salesperson was quick to reply with the word “definitely”. She continued by saying that if management included the cost of midnight calls, transporting people for demos, and other costs, they will discover that it isn’t as profitable as they think.

While this kind of adaptive selling skill (i.e., the additional resources) may be considered as a great tool, in some situations it may be a disguising problem that is eroding the profits of the product.

Putting these three critical factors into consideration, it will go a long way in helping b2b salespeople and the marketing team. Pursuing the same goals become easy for both parties, and this will in turn boost the productivity and profits of the company.